Lord of Lords by Alice Coltrane
This album came out in 1972 and was recently reissued. Alice hits me in the feelings like most music did when I was a teenager—a straight shot to the heart.
FInd a used copy or stream it.
Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire
Sisters Jack and Jill enter a dark and creepy portal world where they enter the households of a powerful vampire and mad scientist. It's strange and sad and fucking great. This is the second book in the Wayward Children series, but it stands alone. I didn't read the first book first and didn't have any trouble.
Eat Up! by Ruby Tandoh
Full disclosure: I have not finished reading this book yet. However, we are entering a holiday season full of cakes, tins of cookies, nogs, and entire roast birds, and for those of us who struggle with disordered eating and body image it can be a very complicated time of year. Ruby’s lush and loving prose reminds us that food can be pleasurable and healing, and that we don’t have to judge and moralize every morsel we put into our mouths. There is an entire “recipe” devoted to eating (and appreciating) a Cadbury Creme Egg. I’m immensely grateful for this book and I highly recommend buying a copy as a gift to yourself.
Lost Girls by Bat for Lashes
UK artist Natasha Khan relocated to LA, where the landscape inspired her to write the soundtrack to an imagined 80s movie about female vampires. If that pitch — or the first 20 seconds of opening track Kids In The Dark — doesn’t move you to immediately dive into this album then I don’t know what to tell you! You’re missing out, babe.
Shop Branson’s store here!
COYOTE DOGGIRL by lisa hanawalt
Look, there’s no way you don’t know who Lisa Hanawalt is. Maybe you’re a huge square? But then why would you be a Rude Tales fan? It just doesn’t add up. This is Hanawalt’s latest, a comic western about a coyote doggirl roughing it in the American Southwest. It’s hilarious and unexpectedly poignant. And those watercolors? Goddamn beautiful.
Support Lisa by buying a copy here.
LOW LIFE by Luc Sante
Low Life chronicles New York City’s history from 1840 to 1919, when the city’s character was really kicking into overdrive. It focuses on the slums and saloons and cocaine dens to explain how this city came to be. It’s hilarious and nauseating and horrifying and has been a huge inspiration for Rude Tales in terms of tone and world-building. The back of the book calls it “a portrait of America’s greatest city, the riotous anarchic breeding ground of modernity” which, like, I’m not gonna top that turn of phrase.
Shop Christopher’s store here!
Ravenloft: King of the Dead by Gene DeWeese & Danilo Gonzalez
Ravenloft: King of the Dead is well out of print, but you can find a busted up paperback copy in your local library, used bookstore, or less local eBay. As a teenager I was enraptured with the Ravenloft novels, which presented a more gothic bent to the D&D worlds of Dragonlance and the Forgotten Realms. King Of the Dead was my introduction to not just an undead lich master of magic, but one that you can maaaaybe sympathize with, despite how evil he is. I've wanted to make up a pathetic lich character ever since.
Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen RusselL
Vampires in the Lemon Grove presents horror with a lightness of touch that almost makes it pleasant. Karen Russell's sparse style invites you to create her unique and magical worlds in your own mind, the terrible revelations not explicit on the page, but in between the words spoken in your head.
DIE (Volume 1) by Kieron Gillen & Stephanie hans
Kieron Gillen is one of the best writers in comics right now- everything he does is funny, dark, and bold. For this new series he's paired with Stephanie Hans, who did covers for a criminally underrated run on Journey Into Mystery (read: Kid Loki) a few years back. It's rare to get such lovingly painted interior art in a comic, and Hans does incredible work imbuing every page with mood and tone. The elevator pitch for this book is 'goth Jumanji' but instead of a fictional boardgame, Gillen and Hans have subbed in some weird roleplaying game about Dungeons and Dragons to bring strange magics to our world.
Vacationland by John Hodgman
There's a story in this book about getting stoned and moving around rocks in a stream for fun that I think would really resonate with Bellow.
The Dictator's Handbook: why bad behavior is almost always good by Bruce bueno de mesquita & alastair smith
This book slaps. If you wanna know how power, politics, and revolution actually work it’s a must read. I use it everyday.
Nathan barley by Chris Morris & Charlie Brooker
Nathan Barley is one of the least seen British comedy masterpieces of the last 25 years. And you can get every episode free on YouTube. Download them, put them on a thumb drive, give it to your funny friend who hates the internet most, and boom, that’s a merry Christmas.
Stream it or buy a copy.
Contemptible Blue by Lucas Gardner
Lucas is a TV comedy writer who got his start self-publishing these strange comedy novels that I love. Contemptible Blue is a riff on Moby Dick, an asshole chases a whale because he hates the stupid thing. No exaggeration, I laugh out loud every page!
Buy directly from the Lucas here.
Edward VIII: The Uncrowned king BY Piers Brendon
Edward VIII abdicated the British throne because he didn't want the responsibility, conspired with the Nazis to regain the throne should they defeat the allies, and also is the vocal reference point for Debonesby and Stirfry. This short bio tells the whole story (except the part about Debonesby and Stirfry which I get).
Find a copy here.